More editorial moves around comics, as Bethany Bryan has joined Papercutz as Associate Editor. An industry veteran, Bryan comes from a background in children’s books, starting her career at Scholastic, working on books for babies and toddlers, and then moving over to library nonfiction publishing for a teen market. A writer, she’s frequently published online, and co-edits Gamervescent, […]

Let’s end up this week in comics with an inspiring event: Rep. John Lewis’s full half appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and that by itself is inspiring enough. There was much discussion of the two March graphic […]

WHO will be the Netflix/Spotify of comics? Several companies have been trying to offer all you can eat comcis buffets, but a lack of top content has been holding them back. But Scribd just made a major play announcing a $8.99 a month plan that allows you access to 10,000 comics, including top titles from Marvel, IDW/Top Shelf, Archie, Dynamite and Valiant. Scribd has been around for a while as en embeddable pdf reader, and already offers over a million ebooks and audiobooks on a subscription basis, so this makes a lot of sense.

I guess the View ladies boofed this but the news is out– and PSYCHE IT WASN’T STAR WARS! Marvel is gathering its heroines for A-Force, an all female Avengers, with the creative team of Marguerite Bennett, G. Willow Wilson and Jorge Molina.

A raft of PR went out at 11:30 after the View was supposed to announce this, but they didn’t because…. Martha Stewart came on and talked about fringe, and Kim Catrall talked about life after the city of sex or something. YOU CANNOT CONTROL THE LADIES OF THE VIEW, people.

[Editor’s note: The release this week of March Book Two by Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell has already made headlines with its story of the fight for civil rights in the 60s, and the covers to both volumes have become iconic in their own right. The message of the courage to fight for equality for all in the face of violent opposition is as relevant and needed today as it was 50 years ago. But powerful images to cover powerful times don’t always spring up fully formed. Here Powell and Top Shelf designer Chris Ross with an in-depth breakdown of how they created these covers and combined imagery to capture both history and ideals.]

NATE: March was originally a single, massive volume, so the initial front and back covers were intended to house the entire narrative: the front introduced the basic visual theme of opposition, with two elements facing off against each other, though a contingent of riot-ready white supremacist police were prominently featured across the bottom. After some discussion with Chris Ross, Andrew Aydin, and Congressman Lewis, we all agreed that we should shift some of that focus to the folks on the front lines, and away from Jim Crow police forces. Around that time, we decided to release the saga as a trilogy, so Chris and I jumped in to further develop the oppositional themes, but playing with different angles and approaches to the cover’s division.

When IDW acquired Top Shelf a few weeks ago, there was much talk about creators like Alan Moore staying around, but Top Shelf’s Chris Staros made it clear that he had discussed the move in advance with his top creators.

One much liked book that Top Shelf published for about a decade is Andy Runton’s Owly series, a steady seller that helped establish kids content in the indy world long before it was fashionable. However, as noted by Johanna Draper Carlson, Runton tweeted that he would be self-publishing Owly going forward.

Brought to you by Publishers Weekly, it’s More To Come, the weekly podcast of comics news, interviews and discussion with Calvin Reid, Kate Fitzsimons and The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald. In this week’s podcast, the More to Come crew discuss Charlie Hebdo, the attack on its offices and its cultural context as well as comics […]

By Bruce Lidl Lost somewhat in the initial burst of news from last week’s ImageExpo was the announcement of a new Image Humble Bundle offering, beginning that morning and lasting until January 21. The “Humble Image Comics Bundle 2: Image Firsts” is a massive collection of digital comics that can be purchased for whatever price […]

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Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s Nemo trilogy wraps up in march with Nemo: River of Ghosts, recently acquired Top Shelf just announced. Like all of its Alan Moore publications, Knockabout will publish the book in the UK. The trilogy, which follows Captain Nemo’s daughter Janni, began in Heart of Ice, continued in The Roses of Berlin and wraps up here, with now aged Janni exploring the Amazon.

Well, bam, 2015 is off to a rousing start, with news breaking this morning that San Diego’s IDW has acquired Atlanta/PDX’s Top Shelf, with Top Shelf’s Chris Staros to remain as Editor in Chief, while partner Brett Warnock retires from comics to run a food and nature blog. Top Shelf will remain as a separate line at IDW, while Leigh Walton, Chris Ross and Zac Boone will all stay on at the new imprint.